Lehman College Faculty Begins Initiative to Experiment with AI Education

Image from Wikimedia, by JPxG

By Savon Williams

On Feb. 20, a meeting held for Lehman College’s AI Month demonstrated ways AI can be integrated into the classroom through a series of experiments showcasing new, inventive implementations.

According to data from Campbell Academic Technology Services, on 
average, students are using AI more than faculty, leading to a difference in use of up to 40%. The experiments by the faculty present an opportunity to bridge how education is evolving within a year. The goal of these experiments is to highlight the importance of students’ original ideas and develop new ways to encourage students to think critically.

“I strongly encourage students to experiment, but also privilege and 
prioritize your point of view,” said Asma Neblett, student support 
and academic resource specialist and facilitator for the first AI Month 
event. The series of experiments feature new, inventive implementations that show potential in classroom use.

Nicole Walker, a Lehman adjunct lecturer for English composition, conducted an experiment that involved creating an application that 
would visualize a series of thought processes of each student for the purpose of highlighting the importance of a student’s own personal capabilities of output in comparison to the process of using AI. The application was created through long conversations between ChatGPT and Claude, but the result had a mixture of compilations.

When asked about the concerns about using AI, Nicole Walker said, “It’s hard not to think of the ethical repercussions. At the same time, I do feel that I need to get ahead of it.”

Patricia Gonzalez Periche, a Lehman chemistry lecturer, presented 
an experiment that involved using AI to grade open-ended questions 
for a class of more than 100 students. The results of the AI grading 
were compared to a series of other professors who were used as the 
control group. The scoring between the human and AI grading resulted in similar outcomes, although the AI avoided scores that were too high or too low, even if the professors agreed that a student deserved that grade.

While ChatGPT offered a variable experience as a grader, Periche noted that students may not be fond of the idea of professors using their grades for an AI tool, saying, “Are the students going to be OK with us inputting their responses if we decide to use this in our classrooms?”

John DeLooper, a Lehman online learning librarian, informed the panel on the difficulties of searching in the era of web browsing-integrated search engines. “There’s a greatly increased need to examine searches critically,” said DeLooper. “It’s harder to find whether there’s a consensus of ideas or lack thereof.” 

By assuming the role of a student during his presentation, DeLooper 
argued that inclusion in these AI systems is an involuntary practice that must be acknowledged.